Monday, April 16, 2012

The Good, the Bad, and the Questionable

Sigh. I've avoided writing because I have an obvious statement to say, and it's not the kindest thing.

Some are better than others.

But, hey, then again, isn't that the beauty of art? Shouldn't the reason why we love this funky subject be because EVERYTHING is unique to the hand of the artist making it? After all, that is why I despise places like Pier One who mass-produce art, without giving a care to recognize the person on the other side of the planet who made it.﻿ Why, then, am I bemoaning some of my students for their artfulness?

Well... there's some stuff that just looks good. It's got clean edges, repetitive designs, creative thought, intriguing shadows. AND THEN, there's others. There's the slopped shapes, marred lines, flat surfaces. Some kids are just downright lazy, which accounts for about 1/74th of the mural (yes, I am thinking of a specific child.) The others that are lacking in quality are done by people with profound disabilities. If you or I struggled with those disadvantages, we would have artwork that looked exactly like the ones that I am concerned about. I'm just hoping that my "with-it" students can pull up the quality of the mural from the trenches. We do have some really fantastic ideas, too. One child wants to have an interactive movable box, and another is hiding little men inside his. Good ideas and great execution.

Let's just say that I've never had more students with profound learning issues. Why did I pick to do this mural now, you ask? Well... I wasn't pregnant. Last year, my daughter Harper was born, and I was out for 8 weeks. After doing my last mural in 2009, it seems like I just took too many years off of doing something big, that it was now or never. Well... we'll just have to see how it turns out.